Blonde (2022) Director: Andrew Dominik Screenwriters: Andrew Dominik Starring: Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson Blonde sets out to dramatize the private life of Marilyn Monroe, presenting a version of Norma Jeane that blurs the line between historical fact and speculative fiction. The film follows her from a traumatic childhood—marked … Read more

Horror films often exist at the edges of mainstream culture, their unsettling themes and striking images placing them outside the pop-culture spotlight. Yet every so often a horror movie breaks through and resonates with a national or global audience in a way most genre entries never do. Those films become the defining terrors of their … Read more

Every few years Hollywood revives familiar faces for big paydays—actors like Tom Cruise who fit the reboot mold: action-ready, scandal-resistant, and seemingly untouched by time. Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022), the last leader of the Soviet Union, is nothing like that archetype. Yet Russian-Ukrainian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky treated him to an unconventional cinematic reboot: a two-part documentary … Read more

Don’t Worry Darling (2022) Director: Olivia Wilde Screenwriter: Katie Silberman Starring: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, Kiki Layne Don’t Worry Darling arrived under a cloud of intense media scrutiny long before many viewers had seen a single frame. Behind-the-scenes controversies—from early casting upheavals to widely circulated reports about on-set tensions—kept … Read more

Marilyn Monroe remains more than a Hollywood icon of the past; she is a timeless cultural figure. Since her sudden death in 1962, her life has often been reduced to myth: the tragic blonde bombshell undone by the studio system and relentless gossip. While many remember her only as an image—a white dress billowing over … Read more

It’s surprising to remember that Lindsay Lohan is still relatively young — she was 36 in 2022. Her peak years as a major film star were brief, and later headlines often focused more on the personal struggles that followed her early fame. In recent years Lohan has returned to the public eye with projects such … Read more

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) Director: Stephen Chbosky Screenwriter: Stephen Chbosky Starring: Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Nina Dobrev, Johnny Simmons, Mae Whitman, Kate Walsh, Dylan McDermott In the summer of 1996 Stephen Chbosky envisioned a young teen standing in the back of a truck, driving through a tunnel — … Read more

Spirited Away is widely regarded as one of the greatest animated films ever made. Released in Japan in 2001, it won immediate critical acclaim and remained the country’s highest-grossing film for nearly two decades. After an English-language release, the film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003 and was a co-recipient of … Read more

Kintsugi (2022) Director: Cleto Acosta-McKillop Screenwriters: Cleto Acosta-McKillop, Quinn Blackshere, Loretta Keresen, Christian Acosta-McKillop Kintsugi (2022) — animated short review The world can feel bleak at times, and small stories that emphasize warmth and resilience are welcome reminders of what makes life meaningful. Kintsugi, a 2022 animated short directed by Cleto Acosta-McKillop, is one such … Read more

Since the silent era, women have played vital and often underrecognized roles in the development of cinema. Many women were writing, editing, directing, and producing films as early as the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and some helped pioneer filmmaking techniques still in use today. Because of sexism and racism, however, the achievements of … Read more